MA Music & Cultural History (2009); BMus (2007); BA Honours Music & History of Art (2006), University College Cork, Ireland

I previously held academic posts at Listaháskóli Islands | Iceland Academy of the Arts (Iceland), the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool (UK), St Patrick's College, Dublin City University, and University College Cork (Ireland).

Research

My work is primarily concerned with how music is used, experienced and mediated in everyday life, particularly by those on the margins of society. My current project Prisons of Note, aims to map the use, experience, and circumstance surrounding popular music in places of detention. Starting in Norway, this project uses mixed methodologies to gain insight into the complexities of establishing -- and maintaining -- music initiatives in contemporary state institutions.

My first monograph Dangerous Mediations: YouTube, Pop Music, and Power in a Philippine Prison Video(New York: Bloomsbury, forthcoming) uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the overlooked, every-day use of music in a prison. Using a localised case study, this book and related peer-reviewed articles in Postcolonial Textand Torture, ask broader questions about the use of music as a form of discipline in the digital era and challenges notions of music as an inherently positive force.

I was recently postdoctoral researcher on the AHRC-funded Music and Stories from the Archives project at the Popular Music Archive. Working closely with Sara Cohen (PI) University of Liverpool, this research and public-engagement project examined popular music materiality, and culminated in a curated public exhibition of music memorabilia at the Open Eye Gallery. I directed and produced a short documentary film Music, Photographs and Stories from the Archives that captured musical memories inspired by the archives.

Additional research is focused on music ecologies, cultures, and place. As postdoctoral research follow with PI John O'Flynn, I carried out a twelve-month ethnography of Dublin's popular music experience, incorporating perspectives of fans (citizens and tourists), musicians, and music industry personnel. The results are published in the Mapping Popular Music in Dublin Executive Report and the research-informed Dublin Music Map. Building research partnerships between St Patrick's College, the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), Fáilte Ireland and Dublin City Arts Office among others, this project was shortlisted for the DCU President's Award for Engagement.

I have life-long interests in community music, music as social integration, and inclusive music education, with a focus on music among Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. I am the author of two reports on the Sing Out with Stringsmusic project, commissioned the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

I have supervised Master and Bachelor students working on topics including: audiovisual media, app albums, popular music and politics, music and digital cultures. I'm happy to hear from prospective Master and PhD students interested in researching any of these areas.

As Co-Chair of the Local Committee for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK & Ireland Biennial Conference, held at University College Cork, 2014 I received the Cork Conference Ambassador Award -- a civil recognition awarded by the Lord Mayor of Cork, the Cork Convention Bureau & Meet in Ireland Programme

I was the first recipient of the Institute of Popular Music 21st Anniversary PhD Scholarship at the University of Liverpool, 2010

My research has been featured in articles and interviews with BBC Radio Merseyside, The Dublin Inquirer,The Irish Times (in "On the Record" and "How Music Works" features), RTÉ Radio 2, Dublin's 98FM Radio, and Liverpool Community Radio.